Riau

Riau is an Indonesian province in eastern Sumatra.

Geography

Riau is located in the flat, interspersed with marshes eastern part of Sumatra, on the Straits of Malacca.

Separated only by narrow inlets be stored flat islands ( indones.: ' Pulau ') to the coast:

  • Bengkalis ( with the eponymous capital )
  • Padang
  • Rank Sang
  • Rantau
  • Penyeler ( with its capital Mendung ), just before the mouth of the river Kampar

The island Kundur, east of Penyeler heard already about the Riau Islands ( Kepulauan Riau ), which form a separate province in 2004.

Other offshore islands lie off the mouth of the Indragiri, near the town Tembilahan. Just south, at the mouth of the Batang Hari, there are two small islands.

Rivers are Siak, Indragiri, Kampar and Rokam.

Riau has a variety of natural resources such as oil, natural gas, rubber, palm oil, fish and timber.

The provincial capital is Pekanbaru.

History

The strategic location on the Strait of Malacca, and thus the shortest sea route from Imperial China to India -related early the importance of the region. Since the 15th century, when Sumatra was Islamized, Riau was under the influence of the kingdom of Malacca, and later built here a private Sultanate.

The European colonial powers Portugal, the UK and the Netherlands fought for influence before all of Sumatra was awarded the Netherlands in the British -Dutch Treaty of 1824. The region proved to be unruly; until 1911 the sultanate was abolished and set a Dutch colonial administration. 1949 Riau, a province of the newly independent Indonesia.

National Parks

In the south of Riau, there are several national parks and reserves, which are also supported by WWF.

  • Tesso Nilo National Park (planned: 1.500 km ², comparison, Saarland 1930 km ²)
  • Bukit Tigapuluh National Park
  • Kerumutan reserves
  • Bukit Rimbang and Bukit Baling Reserves

In these national parks and reserves of the now extremely endangered Sumatran elephant, from the 1985, around 1,600 copies in Riau were counted alive, but now only just under 400

Since 1999, intensive timber industry (paper, pulp and timber production ) is driven in Riau, disappear since a day for about 3 km ² rainforest, this corresponds to 600 football fields, therefore protected areas are increasingly gaining in importance.

Population

The population is made up of more than 10 different ethnic groups. 87.8 % of the population belongs to Sunni Islam, minorities are Buddhists ( 6%), Catholics ( 5%), Protestants ( 1%) and Hindus ( 0.2%). Predominant is a traditional orthodox Islam.

The language spoken in Riau expression of the Malay language was a model for the far part uniform, in Malaysia and in Indonesia on local dialects and languages ​​used Malay.

Governor Rupat Padang Island Rangsang Rantau (island) Riau Archipelago Batang Hari River Natural rubber Wood Asian elephant Aceh Bangka–Belitung Islands Banten Bengkulu Gorontalo (province) North Kalimantan Maluku (province)
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